Ghost Wars: TV Show Review

So, since it’s October, I thought I’d start the month off with a review of something spooky! So here’s my review of Ghost Wars.

I was a huge fan of Supernatural back in the day. But after season six or seven, the show (as we all know) went off the rails. Ever since then, I’ve been looking for a show that would fill that void that Supernatural left; a gritty horror show about the supernatural that I could binge for as long as I wanted. And Ghost Wars fills that void. . . kinda.

The basic plot of Ghost Wars is thus; Roman Mercer (Avan Jogia) is a resident of the small rural town of Port Moore, Alaska. However, he has the ability to see Ghosts. However, this ability earns him the ire of the townsfolk, and he decides to get the hell out of dodge while he still can. Unfortunately, before he can leave, an earthquake hits the town, and angry spirits start to haunt the area, murdering everyone they encounter. And Roman is the only one who can see them. In the background of the show is Lambda, the shadowy corporation that decided to set up a research facility in Port Moore. And soon, it becomes apparent that the scientists there know more than they’re saying.

The acting in Ghost Wars is pretty good. Vincent D’Onofrio of Daredevil fame gives an impassioned performance as Reverend Dan, and Sons of Anarchy’s Kim Coates plays Billy McGrath, a local smuggler and troublemaker. However, the best performance probably goes to Meat Loaf, who plays local redneck and handyman Doug Rennie. All of this serves to make Jogia’s subpar performance as Roman Mercer stand out all the more. Look; he’s far from the worst actor I’ve ever seen, but he is also far, far from the best.

The special effects are similarly varied. The CGI was quite good for the most part, but occasionally bad. The show also has some practical effects, and these are often pretty bad. TV shows — especially sci-fi/fantasy ones — need to learn to invest in a good special effects budget. I get that Sci-fi isn’t exactly LucasArts, but you’d think that after this much time in the business that they’d know a thing or two about how to make a monster look convincing.

That brings me to my next point, which is that the show simply doesn’t quite manage to capture that Supernatural vibe I was hoping for. I wanted action. I wanted terrifying ghosts and horrible monsters. And while that does happen occasionally, the show seems mostly content to let the characters wander around as they try to figure out what’s going on. The show compensates for this by building up suspense throughout the scenes, which it does pretty effectively. But the ghost attacks, when they do happen, are often underwhelming. There’s none of the intensity of Supernatural-style battles, none of the intensity. Perhaps I was expecting too much of the show, but still.

The plot of Ghost Wars is also pretty under whelming. The characters are pretty well written, and for most of the series, I was pretty engaged with them. But the final episodes more or less fell apart, ending on a note that just barely made sense and failed to answer a lot of the questions that had been raised throughout the series. In fact, there were a lot of plot points and potential character arcs that are under explored or outright abandoned. Maybe they were saving these for a second season, but seeing as the show has since been cancelled, now we’ll never know.

Despite the fact that the ending fell flat on its face, I did enjoy Ghost Wars for the most part. It’s kind of a Ghost-Whisperer meets Supernatural type show, and I really liked it. But an ultimately underwhelming plot and underexploited ghosts leave a lot of potential straight on the cutting room floor. If you’re looking for something spooky to binge this month, maybe give it a whirl.

Just don’t expect too much.

3/5 stars